I ran over to the boys school this week to take some pictures of Patrick’s class project. Mrs. Jay (their teacher) has been involved with Project Linus for a few years now (yes, like Linus from Peanuts with the blankie) as Mrs. Jay’s favorite hobby is sewing and quilting- she has passed that on to her classes with a community service twist.

They make handmade quilts for children with serious illnesses so they have something warm and cozy (and just for them) for their hospital beds. The quilts are made by the kids in the class along with Mrs. Jay (and a few high school volunteers too) from beginning to end, with each child being able to choose fabric and use the sewing machine. The kids are super proud of their work and have finished 7 quilts so far this year (4 of which were delivered to children at Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital in NYC). The receipients send back a picture of themselves with their new quilt so the class can see how much the kids love and appreciate their quilts.

It’s a great project and the children in the class are really so happy and excited to be a part of it. Gotta love this teacher!

All kinds of (bad) hubbub going on around Rockville Centre. There’s a HUGE deficit in the budget due to state cuts among other things and the Administration’s proposed 2009-10 budget is a complete disaster. They are discussing either closing one of the elementary schools and redistricting the remaining 4, or making gigantic cuts in the district’s programs (which includes increasing the already too high class caps).

Really, both of the options presented are completely and utterly unacceptable. So much so, that I actually got up and spoke at the last BOE meeting in front of 500 or so people (and I loathe doing that but was so pissed off that I just did it. And I’m glad I did. Shaky voice and all.) The major point remains…where are the ADMINISTRATIVE cuts? Why are all the cuts they are proposing directly (negatively) effecting our childrens education? Nevermind the fact that the whole town is against closing one of the schools. Like I said, a giant mess. And another school tax increase looming.

So if you live in Rockville Centre, whether or not you have kids in the RVC schools (and remember, if the schools suck, your property value will suck too) please, please come to the next BOE meeting tommorrow, Tuesday 2/10 at 7pm at the high school auditorium and show your support. We need to let the BOE know (and keep letting them know thru emails and letters) that the proposed ideas for the budget are NOT OK. We need to see some administrative cuts, not cuts in schools or school programs that will hurt our children and our whole community.

Off my soapbox now…

More normal posts starting up tommorrow. Trying to work out the whole gallery posting thing so that I can have albums of client’s images on this blog like on the old blog (only better).  There are a few kinks in the system that Matt and I are trying to work thru. I promise the new blog will be really really nice, really really soon!

Come back tommorrow for some Timmy birthday pictures.

Well, today was the last day of 3rd grade for my big big boys. Can’t believe they will be in 4th in just a few months. Seriously, 4th grade? They were just starting Kindergarten last month.

On a side note, I am so behind on all the stuff I want to blog that I decided I’m just starting with today’s stuff and working backwards. Otherwise I’d be posting the last day of school sometime in August.

Since school was only one hour today (yeah, the stupidest thing ever), Timmy and I hung out in the playground in the back of the school while the boys were inside. Jen, Jack & ‘baby’ Michael met us for a little playground fun. Blue puppy made the trip over with us. Picked up the boys and had a look at their fabulous, outstanding report cards. Fantastic!! Really, couldn’t have asked for more (well, except Jack is still getting Improvement shown for Organization- that’s just so him) since they got almost all E’s (excellents) in everything else. I got them the new Indiana Jones Lego Wii game to celebrate. Poor Jack got sorta blindsided by both his teachers with the whole kissing thing. Needless to say, he was not happy.

So later in the day we went to the ‘crunchy club’ (Timmy’s version of the country club) for an afternoon of swimming and then home to Wii it up while Timmy and I played some board games. Then off to see the Turn at practice (see below post). All in all, a great day and a great ending to 3rd grade. Summer, here we come!